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Capote [DVD]
 
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Capote [DVD]

 Suitable for 15 years and over   DVD
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Format: PAL
  • Language English
  • Subtitles: Hindi, English
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: 15
  • Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent. UK
  • DVD Release Date: 3 May 2010
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B000EF5SYO
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 7,167 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)

Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

Bolstered by an Oscar-caliber performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman in the title role, Capote ranked highly among the best films of 2005. Written by actor/screenwriter Dan Futterman and based on selected chapters from the biography by Gerald Clarke, this mercilessly perceptive drama shows how Truman Capote brought about his own self-destruction in the course of writing In Cold Blood, the "nonfiction novel" that was immediately acclaimed as a literary milestone. After learning of brutal killings in rural Holcomb, Kansas, in November 1959, Capote gained the confidence of captured killers Perry Smith (Clifton Collins, Jr.) and Dick Hickock (Mark Pellegrino) in an effort to tell their story, but he ultimately sacrificed his soul in the process of writing his greatest book. Hoffman transcends mere mimicry to create an utterly authentic, psychologically tormented portrait of an insincere artist who was not above lying and manipulation to get what he needed. Bennett Miller's intimate direction focuses on the consequences of Capote's literary ambition, tempered by an equally fine performance by Catherine Keener as Harper Lee, Capote's friend and the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, who served as Capote's quiet voice of conscience. Spanning the seven-year period between the Kansas murders and the publication of In Cold Blood in 1966, Capote reveals the many faces of a writer who grew too close to his subjects, losing his moral compass as they were fitted with a hangman's noose. --Jeff Shannon

Stills from Capote (click for larger image)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By Mary Whipple HALL OF FAME TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:DVD
This brutally honest portrait of author Truman Capote, with its stunning photography (by Adam Kimmel) and Academy Award-winning acting, has been one of the most "decorated" films of 1995. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Oscar-winner as Best Actor, becomes Capote in this film--small, effete, and vulnerable, but also selfish, petulant, weak, and sometimes cruel. Catherine Keener, as Harper Lee, Capote's childhood friend, offers a stunning contrast to Hoffman's Capote. Tall, honest, and committed to keeping Capote focused, she grounds the film, while serving as Capote's research assistant during his investigation of the cold-blooded killings of four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, in 1959.

At the opening of the film, the clean, flat plains and unadorned farmhouse belonging to the victims form a visual contrast with Capote's frantic life in New York. A naive teenager's discovery of the murders, the savagery of the murders, and effects of the murders on the townspeople continue the contrasts between the harsh realities of local life and the esoteric lifestyle of Capote. When Perry Smith (sensitively played by Clifton Collins, Jr.) and Richard Eugene Hickock (Mark Pellegrino) are arrested, and Capote makes contact with Smith, the viewer suddenly sees Capote and Smith as similar--both lonely, sad, a bit shy, and sometimes frightened. As Perry Smith begins to confide in Capote, the similarities of their backgrounds and dysfunctional families become even more obvious.

Exceptionally opportunistic, Capote is also deeply affected by Smith, feeding him when his hunger strike leaves him close to death, but also borrowing Smith's personal journals for his research because "I don't want the world to see you as a monster." Sometimes abandoning Smith and Hickock for months at a time, Capote comes and goes in their lives, leaving Smith desperate at times, and causing Jack Dunphy, Capote's lover, to accuse Capote of using Smith. As the six years pass between the crime and the publication of In Cold Blood, Capote himself deteriorates from alcohol and drugs as inexorably as Smith and Hickock have done while awaiting execution.

The interactions between Hoffman, as Capote, and Collins, as Smith, lead to poignant scenes of great emotion--Capote dissembling when Smith wants to know the name of the book he is writing, Capote refusing to pay a visit to Smith until just before his execution, and Capote crying "I did everything I could," when clearly he did not. Intensely acted, sensitively directly, stunningly photographed, and hauntingly human, this memorable film takes a close, personal look at Capote and the man he fears may be his alter ego. Mary Whipple
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By OEJ TOP 100 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:DVD
Roger Jon Ellory, who dedicated his masterpiece 'A Quiet Belief in Angels' to Truman Capote, urged me to see this film and within a few minutes of the start I could see why. I wanted to see it before I read the novel on which it is based, IN COLD BLOOD. This movie is not a lifetime biopic; instead it covers what were surely the most important five years in the life of one of the greatest American writers of his time, which he dedicated to writing what would become his last completed novel - although it was classified as non-fiction as it was based on real events.

I think you would benefit from a prior knowledge of Capote and who he was in order to enjoy this film. I can imagine that anyone knowing nothing about him might find it all rather uninteresting. But anybody with a curiosity to know more about this enigmatic, gregarious and highly intelligent man should find it captivating, due in no small part to the portrayal by Hoffman, who probably took a big risk by accepting the part because if he had got it wrong he could have been ridiculed for years. For example, there's Capote's very unusual voice; I must admit that I opted to have the subtitles switched on because I found it difficult at times to understand what Hoffman was saying, but later on when I watched the very interesting 'extras' on the DVD - which included an interview with Capote himself - I realised that the reproduction of his voice was remarkably accurate. It must have been very difficult to speak like that without sounding camp, but Hoffman never does. But the bigger insight into the character of the great man is discovered when the viewer realises that the relationship he has been developing with a convicted murderer on death row has been highly manipulative despite its origins of a sympathy and understanding for a young man troubled and isolated, as Capote clearly had been earlier in his own life. Basically, Capote wanted to control the killers' stay of execution to suit his own means, and when he eventually felt able to complete his book after more than four years in the making, and when he felt that he might have a nervous breakdown if it could not be finished off soon, he had the power and influence to speed up the execution. So the irony is that while the title of the novel leads you to think only of the ruthlessness of the killers, there is something of a double-entendre that Capote may or may not have been aware of: his own cold-bloodedness at determining how long two men should live, and when they should die.

It's hard to think of any other actor playing the part of Truman Capote, and there can really be no question that Philip Seymour Hoffman was a worthy winner of his Academy Award for Best Actor. He absolutely made this film what it is, although mention must be made of a perfect supporting cast and high-quality screenplay and direction.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By C. O. DeRiemer HALL OF FAME TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:DVD
At the start of the movie, I would have given a lot to be standing next to Truman Capote at his party, both of us half drunk, listening to his anecdotes and trading quips with him. At the end of the movie, I wouldn't have wanted to be in the same room with him.

Capote is a major motion picture, in my view, with a great, mesmerizing performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman as Capote. Hoffman doesn't just mimic Capote's languid lisp and effeminate mannerisms. He captures the man's drive, his ambition, his empathy, his charm, his determination to get what he wants. What Capote wants is to write a book, and the book is going to be the story of the slaughter of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, by two drifters, Richard Hickock (Mark Pellegrino) and Perry Smith (Clifton Collins, Jr.). The two broke into the Clutter's home because they'd heard there was $10,000 hidden. They tied up Herb Clutter and his 15-year-old son, Kenyon, and took them to the basement. They tied up Bonnie Clutter and the 16-year-old daughter, Nancy, and left them upstairs. After searching the house and finding no hidden cash, Hickock intended to rape Nancy. Smith stopped him...but then slit Herb Clutter's throat and used a shotgun to blast his head. Then Smith used the shotgun on the son, the mother and the daughter. They left with only about $50.

Capote and Harper Lee (Catherine Keener), a friend acting as his assistant, travel to Holcomb and spend three months talking to everyone they can find, from Alvin Dewey (Chris Cooper), the cop in charge, to the teen-agers who knew the young Clutters. After Hickock and Smith are captured, Capote develops a strange, almost intimate, relationship with Smith. "It's as if Perry and I grew up in the same house," he says at one point, "and one day he went out the back door and I went out the front." He is writing what he knows will be a great book, but it can have no ending until Perry finally breaks down and tells him what happened the night of the killings. And it still will have no end until, all appeals having failed, Hickock and Perry are hanged. Years go by. To get this story, Capote will use and manipulate Perry, a man more vulnerable than we might think. Capote lies to him, uses emotional blackmail, perhaps even believes himself some of the emotions he is displaying to Perry. But all the while, Capote's ambition and ruthlessness to write his story never waver, no matter how emotionally wrenching it has become for him. Of course, he does get the story, Perry and Hickock are hanged and In Cold Blood becomes one of the masterpieces of American literature.

Hoffman manages to evoke a reluctant admiration for Capote. If you've ever seen the photo of Capote used on the dust jacket of his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, there is no doubt that the man is flamboyant and amused by people's reaction to his distinctiveness. There's also no doubt that as a teen-ager, Capote probably was unmercifully treated by his peers. One can't help but admire Capote's talent and his single-mindedness, or be repelled by his willingness to do just about anything to get the story and write his book.

Hoffman gives an extraordinary performance. Also excellent are so many others in the cast, particularly Chris Cooper, Clifton Collins, Jr. and Catherine Keener. If In Cold Blood is a book worth reading, Capote is a movie worth seeing.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Just Brilliant ++++++++++++++++++
If you want to watch a great actor at work just watch this film, unbelievable portrail of Capote just excellent.
Published 18 days ago by septimus-blake
capote
Who and what was Truman Capote? I bought this DVD to find out. The enigma remains for many people, including myself. Read more
Published on 13 Feb 2010 by Dr. David M. Williams
Capote
Truman Capote's famous book, "In Cold Blood", is one of the best books I have ever read. I thought the film concentrated too much on Capote's relationship with Perry Smith, whereas... Read more
Published on 31 Dec 2009 by R. A. HOWARD
hoffmann's meteoric performance
I was bowled over by Philip Seymour Hoffman's acting and found it totally compelling in what I felt was a rather pedestrian film. Read more
Published on 24 Nov 2009 by inch worm
'Capote' not 'Infamous'
There were two films about Truman Capote that were released in fairly quick succession. The first was this one - 'Capote', in 2005, followed by 'Infamous' a few months later in... Read more
Published on 6 Aug 2009 by Vitamino
'Capote' not 'Infamous'
There were two films about Truman Capote that were released in fairly quick succession. The first was this one - 'Capote', in 2005, followed by 'Infamous' a few months later in... Read more
Published on 25 July 2009 by Vitamino
Glossy, yet dull ...
The acting, cinematography, script and sets merit five stars, but alas, the subject matter downgrades it. Read more
Published on 14 Jun 2009 by Tyke
Capote
`Capote' explores the life of Truman Capote as he wrote his most well known book `In Cold Blood'. It follows him as he befriends one of the killers of a horrible murder and gains... Read more
Published on 19 April 2009 by Spider Monkey
Hoffman is SENSATIONAL
Phillip Hoffman is truly sensational in his portrayal of Truman Capote

Anybody who has ever seen the real Truman Capote [checkout YOUTUBE] Hoffmans voice,looks and... Read more
Published on 9 Feb 2009 by XANDER
CAPOTE
THIS FILM IS GREAT. GREAT CASTING, WELL WRITTEN, GOOD SCREEN PLAY. IF YOU LIKE FILMS WITH SUBSTANCE......BUY IT
Published on 22 July 2008 by N. Angus
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